Proper Channels: The Rodney Atkins Reunion and Language

National Council for Adoption celebrity spokesperson country singer Rodney  Atkins ,has revealed that he was reunited with his natural mother in 2008. The wire picked up the story and it’s all over the map now.  Just one story, though, so there’s no exclusive interviews, no deep insight into Atkins decision to search.  And, thankfully no primal wounding.  It appears that despite Rodney being a family secret until the reunion, the reunion has gone very well. Oh dear!  Do I hear a shoe pounding on heaven’s floor again? Atkins reunion story is nice, normal, and inoffensive except for one sentence: So in August of 2008, Atkins went through the proper channels and reunited with his birth mother in Nashville. Proper channels?  It’s an odd choice of words. Maybe that was the reporter’s choice of words.  Maybe Atkins, the NCFA spokesperson, chose them, stressing that he is a well-behaved adoptee, not some Christmas Day intruder or porch pisser. However… I’ve never seen that term used in any reunion story. Ever. And I’ve been reading them for decades. Proper channels.  The whole thing sets wrong with me, especially since Atkins was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and his information may have been available to him for the asking, no thanks to NCFA’s legal Continue Reading →